Took my daughter’s carbine to the range yesterday to sight in the newly acquired trijicon mro. I left the range with her rifle zeroed with both the optic and the back up Magpul rear sight and these observations:
I have read of many frustrated red dot users not knowing which part of the red streak to use as the actual point of aim. For me I couldn’t decide which part of the hour glass shaped part to use. I tried various settings and visualized the dot through the lower third back up sight. The result was the same shape but just less glare around the edges. I was also wearing prescription polarized eye protection.
I had more success at 100 yards making smaller groups with the back up sight than the optic. This was also true at 50 yards.
I will find out later this week if her younger eyes are better suited for the trijicon mro than mine.
I prefer the aimpoint pro over the smaller trijicon mro. The aimpoint has more useful settings in adjusting the brightness of the dot. Once I got back home I tried out the pro and my trijicon reflex. I guess I do have a slight astigmatism that I have never noticed before. I have been using the pro since it came out and have always appreciated the small crisp dot. I used the aimpoint pro and my Colt 6920 to produce a 5 inch 20 shot group from a rest at 200 yards using IMI mk262 last month.
For now I have no buyer’s remorse as the trijicon may work for her. For me? I am glad I have the aimpoint.
I’ve had it forever. The best set of prescription correction I’ve had made came from the optician at the local Walmart about a month ago. Now I can see a perfectly round dot with a little corona (which is even all the way around) on the 2 MOA dot of my PRO and no edge fuzziness at all with the 4 MOA dot of my CompC.
Somewhere I read that the larger the dot the less susceptible it is to distortion from astigmatism. My experience seems to bear that out.
I’d like to try a 3 MOA dot, that might be the perfect combination of small size and crisp edge for me.
I have a mild astigmatism its mildly annoying but not really a big deal … my red dots are slightly bigger then they are supposed to be and different shapes but nothing as bad as an hour glass they are still totally useable
I have looked through EOtechs and they looked way better but still not sure whether or not i want a holographic sight
Im considering ordering a trijicon rm09 1 moa dot … im thinking it will be nicer if my creative eyes have less material to work with lol
I believe my eyes prefer the aimpoint as the dot appears smaller and has less intensity than the trijicon. I know both are supposed to be 2moa dots. But the quickly building intensity of the trijicon made it worse. I know the purpose of the red dot is quick acquisition for a bullet into a chest sized target. Every red dot I have will do this. But when placing bullets into a 6moa paper bullseye, the aimpoint pro is superior. For me…
I have astigmatism that makes all the red dots less than a crisp circle, but not to the point where I can’t use them. The Aimpoint Micros aren’t appreciably worse for me in this respect than anything else I have owned/borrowed, so I keep using them. The red dot optic that seems to be the least problematic for my vision remains an old 30 mm UltraDot that is mounted atop my .22 pistol… lots of smaller, more up-to-date reflex sights have challenged it, but that dot still gets along best with my eyes.
Astigmatism coupled with the onset of cataracts can make long range sessions less fun than they ought to be, but whenever I start to get down about it someone shows up in one of the lanes with eyes way more derped than mine.
I have the same deal. The dots usually appear like a comma and I zero it on the top of the comma. It works well. A tip to reduce the “starburst” is to look through the rear BUIS at the dot. Try it. It’s wild how well it works.
I have a mild astigmatism. I get a ray around 7 to 8 o’clock on a pro. Only looked through an MRO and some Vortex 2moa sporadically so really not enough to draw a conclusion on.
One of the few 3moa dots I can think of (and have access to) is the Aimpoint Comp M and now that you mention it I don’t think I get much distortion with it. I thought it was a lack of brightness, which is a problem because those are no longer rebuildable and this thing is useless in full sunlight unless the front is closed off for occluded eye use.
Wonder if that is a variation of being able to make an aperture with the tips of both index fingers and thumbs to act as a half assed magnifying glass? Best I can recall, it has something to do with controlling/focusing light getting in to the eye.
My understanding is that looking at a red dot through an aperture reduces or eliminates the distortion caused by astigmatism because the aperture acts as a collimator of sorts which reduces the amount of light that reaches the deformed portions of the retina.
I wish also I could find the snippet where I read that the larger the dot, the less susceptible it is to distortion from astigmatism. Comparing 2 and 4 MOA Aimpoints back to back I can assure you that effect is real, at least to my vision.
I have mild astigmatism in my right eye. I wear contacts daily with a specially made one in my right eye for the astigmatism. I’ve never had any issues with red dots when wearing my contacts. I’ll have to try it without them one day to see just how bad it is.
I looked through one and seemed as good or better than my Aimpoint PRO (same size dot). This stuff is so personal I don’t think generalizations can be made.
The advantage of contacts over glasses is that with contacts you’re always looking through the optical center of the lens (where the optical correction is optimal) regardless of head or eye position, so you really shouldn’t see the dot distortion if your prescription is correct and the lenses well made. With glasses there is a compromise unless you have a set made with the optical center located where your eye looks when you’re in position behind the gun.
Been dealing with this for the last 37 years, unfortunately.
The problem with astigmatism and RDS isn’t usually in the quality of the eye exam…a competent optometrist/ophthalmologist can create a prescription that accurately corrects astigmatism. The problem is usually with the optical lab that actually grinds that prescription. That does require good (expensive) equipment and a competent optician. Such quality can vary even within an otherwise competent lab depending on the quality of the tech. For shooters, it’s always smart to take your RDS (without an attached gun) into the optical shop when you go to pick up the glasses and make sure they ground it correctly.
If a pair of glasses are going to be screwed up, it’s almost always in the multi-axis grinding to correct the astigmatism.
I have mild astigmatism. It only manifests itself in low light. Outdoors with sunlight, the dot is crisp. Indoors with only ambient light, I see a cluster of grapes.
It’s a non issue for me. The cluster of grapes is fine enough indoors at breathing distance. The center of the cluster will still put rounds where you want them. Outdoors in sunlight, it’s crisp. During low light, you can’t see anything at distance anyway so it doesn’t matter.